Valentine's Day Starbucks drinks introduces chocolatey chips to the public

Starbucks, the ubiquitous caffeine dealer, debuted three new drinks this week that it felt embodied what most people were missing from their lives: molten chocolate.

The Molten Chocolate Latte, Molten Hot Chocolate and Molten Chocolate Frappuccino were introduced Monday — much to the chagrin of your flummoxed local barista — to enrapture sweets-craving customers through Feb. 14.

Because #valentinesday.

A drink debut from Starbucks is not all that unusual. Another holiday, another holiday-themed drink from Starbucks, right?

The only teensy issue is that a reader of the blog Consumerist wanted to know about one of the key ingredients listed in all three drinks.

What, exactly, are "chocolatey chips"?

The "chocolatey chips" are what is used for the molten part of the drinks — it is a food item that isn't exactly chocolate, at least per the Food and Drug Administration. To be able to call something "chocolate," the product "has to contain a certain percentage of actual cocoa bean," Consumerist explained.

Chocolatey chips (emphasis ours) does not meet those standards. Per the FDA, "sweet chocolate contains not less than 15 percent by weight of chocolate liquor." To be sure, they are made of chocolate parts, just not enough of the bits to be called plain ol' "chocolate."

The FDA has its very technical version of what does and does not a chocolate make, which can be read here. Meanwhile, Grubstreet offered its own take on the topic, breaking down the ingredients of chocolatey chips with the ingredients of Hershey's semisweet chocolate chips (no -ey here).

Why go with chocolatey chips, rather than the grade-A chocolate stuff? A Starbucks representative told Consumerist, "This is the best recipe for ease of melting in our Molten Chocolate handcrafted beverages and blending into Frappuccino blended beverages."

But, how does it taste? As U.S. food consumers, we don't shy away from "chocolate-flavored" items, so the SFGATE staff put the three molten chocolate drinks to a (highly unscientific) taste test.

When purchasing the drinks, the cashier confessed the latte "tastes like a regular mocha" while the manager offered a more generous, "It does taste like a mocha, but richer." The chocolate, apparently, settles on the bottom of the cup and melts into each sip the further you get into the cup.

While sampling at the office, opinions ranged from "chalky" (for the Molten Chocolate Latte) to "this tastes like regular powdery hot chocolate." Another taste tester declared the hot chocolate to be "watery" toward the top, then surmised that the last sips would have all the chocolate taste.

(That guess turned out to be true: the chocolatey chips were all globbed onto the bottom of the cup when it was finished, and the last quarter of the cup was definitely the most chocolatey tasting.)

The "winner" among the drinks was the Molten Chocolate Frappuccino, but not by much, given that a grande-sized drink is 420 calories and has a whopping 51 grams of sugar. Overall, the drinks were deemed overwhelmingly sweet, and many in the office were not interested in having more than a few sips.

As one person put it, "There's something in there that's not quite right."

The drinks are not bad, per se, and probably not the biggest food sin out there — given that people like this exist — but knowing what's going into your drinks is half the battle. Chocolatey chips and all.

The trio of Molten Chocolate Drinks from Starbucks. From left to right: the Molten Chocolate Latte, Molten Chocolate Frappuccino and the Molten Hot Chocolate.

The trio of Molten Chocolate Drinks from Starbucks. From left to right: the Molten Chocolate Latte, Molten Chocolate Frappuccino and the Molten Hot Chocolate.

Photo: Dianne De Guzman / SFGATE

Photo: Dianne De Guzman / SFGATE

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The trio of Molten Chocolate Drinks from Starbucks. From left to right: the Molten Chocolate Latte, Molten Chocolate Frappuccino and the Molten Hot Chocolate.

The trio of Molten Chocolate Drinks from Starbucks. From left to right: the Molten Chocolate Latte, Molten Chocolate Frappuccino and the Molten Hot Chocolate.

Photo: Dianne De Guzman / SFGATE

Valentine's Day Starbucks drinks introduces chocolatey chips to the public